The Owl 
Among its mysterious relationships, the 
owl was believed to be connected with 
some of the machinations of witchcraft. 
It will be remembered that the miscel- 
laneous ingredients which went to the 
making of the hell-broth of Macbeth’s 
“midnight hags” included ‘a lizard’s leg 
and howlet’s wing.”’' 
Shakespeare’s introduction of the owl 
into his fairy-land was a dexterous ar- 
tistic stroke, for it connected a_ well- 
known but somewhat mysterious bird 
with his world of sprites, and gave to 
that world a further touch of realism. 
Alike in the Tempest and the Merry 
Wives this conjunction may be seen. 
The “dainty Ariel,” Prospero’s “ tricksy 
spirit, sings : 
Where the bee sucks, there suck I, 
In a cowslip’s bell I lie ; 
There I couch when owls do cry.? 
Titania, the Queen of the fairies, when she 
1 Macbeth, iv. i. 17. 2 Tempest, v. i. 88. 
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